Burgess Hill Town 'have come a long way' despite Senior Cup final defeat

John Rattle was disappointed that Burgess Hill Town could not overcome Bognor Regis Town in Tuesday night’s Sussex Senior Cup final, but felt Hill’s performance in the 2-1 defeat showed that ‘they’ve come a long way’.

Jimmy Wild gave Bognor the lead on five minutes and the Rocks should have been at least 4-0 up. A mixture of wayward shooting and top goalkeeping from the Hillians Josh James kept the score at 1-0.

Ross Murdoch levelled proceedings two minutes before half-time and Hill began to control the second-half.

Neither side could find a winner in 90 minutes, but Doug Tuck struck in the first-half of extra-time to secure Bognor’s first Senior Cup win in 32 years.

The Hillians were thumped 8-0 by Bognor at Nyewood Lane in the league back in October and many were worried about a repeat of the result, especially after the opening quarter of the first-half.

But Hill produced a sterling performance and were unlucky to fall to defeat.

Rattle said: “It was relief after the first 20 minutes then disappointment after we got back into it.

“We didn’t look very good to begin with but we worked it out.

“We had to rejig things around as Cheick (Toure) got here late.

“Second-half they had chances but I think we had the better chances to finish it off.

“The guys have worked hard. Maybe we just lacked, like we had done all season, a little bit of quality in both boxes.”

“I just think we need to be a little bit more clinical. We had it when we had Tommy (Wood) and it wins games.”